Hot lava video goes viral on YouTube

Starr Keshet, 5th October 2010

No, this hot video isn't about a bikini-clad stripper coming over to fix the cable. But it still is causing quite a stir on YouTube.

The clip - which purportedly shows a (mad) scientist named Drew Bristol exploring the interior of a live volcano - has already garnered 746,688 views since it was posted on September 19th.

The amazing video was filmed by volcanologist Geoff Mackley at the remote Marum volcano on Ambrym Island in the South Pacific Ocean.

Unsurprisingly, the daredevil footage prompted a number of skeptics to suggest that Mackley staged the entire episode.

However, an insistent Mackley told the MailOnline that he didn't "fake things."

"What would be the point of me traveling around the world to film volcanoes and earthquakes and then faking the footage? Of course, you can fake anything in a studio these days, but that's not for me. What you see from me is real.

"[We used] a long lens [to] foreshorten the image so the lava looks a lot closer to Drew in his protective silver-coloured suit than it appears. He is about 100m (100 yards) from the surface of the lava - which is certainly close enough for him to require a protective suit."

"[But] the others were further up and while we could feel the intense heat we were quite a bit higher than Drew - although the camera makes us look as though we are just a bit above him."